When pundits (or celebrities, reporters, or politicians) have personal audiences at that scale, what role does that leave for actual media companies?

The same thought occurred to me after Howard Kurtz left The Washington Post for The Daily Beast last October. I follow Kurtz via Twitter, and about a month later I realized that his move was entirely frictionless to me as a news consumer.

As a Twitter user, clicking a link to read his work at the Post is the same as clicking a link to read him at the Beast. As Twitter becomes a news delivery service, traditional news brands become fungible. It's the content, or the personality, that matters.

There is no telling how Olbermann plans to use Twitter as he looks for his next job. But his exposure is growing: In the few days since he announced he was leaving MSNBC, he has gained as many followers (around 16,000) as he did in the preceding month.